In short
Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 U.S. presidential election without carrying a single Southern state, fracturing the already-tense alliance between North and South. His Republican platform opposed slavery's expansion into new territories, a position that prompted eleven Southern states to secede within months, igniting the Civil War.
How it unfolded.
The five-minute version
What actually happened.
The following elections occurred in the year 1860. Most notably, the 1860 United States presidential election was one of the events that precipitated the American Civil War.
Year by year.
Across 157 days, 7 pivotal moments.
Timeline
How it actually unfolded.
Lincoln elected president
Abraham Lincoln wins the presidency with 180 electoral votes and 39.7% of the popular vote, carrying 18 Northern states but no Southern ones.
South Carolina secedes
South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union, citing Lincoln's election and Republican opposition to slavery expansion.
Mississippi secedes
Mississippi formally secedes, followed within days by Florida and Alabama as the crisis deepens.
Louisiana secedes
Louisiana votes to leave the Union; Georgia, Texas, and Arkansas follow within weeks.
Confederate States formed
Seceded states meet in Montgomery, Alabama and establish the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as president.
Lincoln inaugurated
Lincoln takes office as the 16th president. In his inaugural address, he pledges not to interfere with slavery where it exists but rejects the right of states to secede.
Fort Sumter attacked
Confederate forces open fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Lincoln calls for volunteers; four Upper South states respond by seceding, completing the 11-state Confederacy.
The chain of consequence.
Impact
What followed.
Lincoln's election served as the immediate catalyst for Southern secession. Seven states left the Union before his inauguration in March 1861, and four more joined them after Fort Sumter, setting off a conflict that killed 620,000 Americans and reshaped the nation's political and moral foundation.
Captured in time.
Captured before it changed
The web as it looked, the day it happened.
Wayback Machine snapshots of the pages people actually loaded that day. Click any card to open the archive at full size.
Sources & citations.
Sources
Where this came from.
Every claim on this page traces to a public, license-clean source. We don't asterisk well.
Wikipedia
1 source- 1.Election of 1860
en.wikipedia.org
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